Lagganlia 2025 young coach report
Credit: Rose Taylor
We made an award this year to the Junior Regional Orienteering Squads (JROS) to support expenses for young developing coaches at JROS camps (see award). Here we bring you a report with quotes from various of those coaches. Also see the report from Stockholm 2025.
Lagganlia camp lead Don McKerrow writes:
I would first like to add my own comments about the success of the program to train and enthuse young coaches at Lagganlia. At Lagganlia we split up into coaching groups. Each of these has a “senior” and a “junior” coach. This year two of our senior coaches had done their first tour coaching role as a junior coach at Lagganlia two or three years ago. Without this flow of coaches gaining experience and confidence we would struggle to find sufficient coaches to put on the Lagganlia camp at all. In this context we cannot stress the importance of having a regular supply of new junior coaches at Lagganlia who will go on to coach for Lagganlia, other JROS tours, or for their university or regional squad. In this context we greatly appreciate the support in this regard from the Orienteering Foundation.
Comments from coaches
Lagganlia was my first time experiencing a JROS camp as a coach, having been on many as a junior. The camp really helped me work on my coaching, I was able to learn a lot from the other coaches and see their different approaches. Working with the athletes increased my confidence in my coaching abilities. I will take what I have learned at Lagganlia with me into future coaching situations, It will also help me as I finish off my BOF Level 2 coaching award. Thank you Orienteering Foundation for this opportunity.
I coached on the JROS Lagganlia camp this year and it was an amazing, and eye-opening experience. Previously, I had coached at a few Scotland Junior Orienteering Squad weekends, where I was coaching older juniors. At Lagganlia, I was able to get fully involved from the beginning of the week and, for the first time, I was able to coach M/W14s. We made sure to have daily coaching meetings where we discussed how the day’s training went and the feedback of the junior athletes, which was a great and easy way to improve what we were doing day-on-day. Each group of coaches – made up of coaches with different levels of experience – were assigned a group of athletes that we worked with for the whole week. This was useful as it really allowed you to build a relationship with the athletes, while also allowing the newer coaches (like me) to learn from the other, more experienced coaches. Lagganlia has massively improved my confidence in my coaching ability, and the satisfaction of seeing your group of athletes improve, using skills you have shown them, throughout the week is quite special. Also, we trained on some of the best, most technical areas in Britian which gives me the assurance that I could be a successful coach anywhere. I now feel confident enough to coach within my local club and at other JROS camps in years to come.
Lagganlia was my first experience of coaching juniors in Orienteering. As part of my role, I shadowed the juniors in my group, and my understanding of when to intervene improved throughout the week. I was impressed with the juniors' abilities to read contours from the start of the week, but I also enjoyed seeing a massive improvement in their compass and distance skills. My own ability to understand why we make mistakes got better as a result of the coaching experience. As a junior who has come up through the JROS tours, the intense work of the coaches behind the scenes to pull off the camp was eye-opening. The welcoming nature of all of the coaches also helped me to settle into a different role on a JROS tour. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to take part and I hope to do so again!
I am very grateful for funding from the Orienteering Foundation to attend Lagganlia as junior coach as it gave me the experience to learn from more experienced coaches and refine my coaching technique. Being able to travel to Scotland and coach in challenging in terrain over the course of a week is an amazing opportunity and leads to lots of learning and development as a coach and I am looking forward to taking the skills that I have improved back to my university and home clubs to continue coaching, albeit in very different Southern terrains!
I'm an experienced orienteer who has been the fortunate recipient of coaching from a young age (through the South West Junior Squad, several junior tours to Scandinavia and approximately 10 years in the British Junior/Senior squads). However I have only recently started to coach in a formal capacity, completing the Orienteering Coach qualification earlier this year alongside stepping into the role of lead coach for the East Midland Junior Squad. Coaching at Lagganlia this summer was my first time attending one of the summer JROS tours since my junior days and was both a challenging and highly rewarding experience. It provided a perfect opportunity for me to build upon the foundational knowledge and experience I gained through the process of completing my Orienteering Coach qualification. It was particularly beneficial to have the opportunity to observe several experienced coaches 'at work' and I have no doubt that I will be a better coach going forwards following my week at Lagganlia.
Before Lagganlia, I had not had any experience coaching at all but have always considered it something that I would like to try having had so much coaching myself. Lagganlia was an amazing experience that helped me learn how to analyse other's orienteering and how best to offer advice to help them improve their skills. I loved building a rapport with the athletes and see their improvements so obviously throughout the week. After having enjoyed my time so much at Lagganlia, I am now very keen to get qualified as a coach and to become more involved with coaching at squad trainings.
Credit: Rose Taylor